EXCLUSIVE: Gemini's 1 Billion User March to the Metaverse

Interview with Griffin Cock Foster, Co-Founder of Nifty Gateway, on Gemini/Nifty metaverse goals.

The challenge of any technology that has nearly limitless potential in form and function, like the Metaverse, is defining what is hype and what is reality

It is generally understood to be an interactive, social 3D experience that combines blockchain and commerce, along with the value of digital ownership. But, what will the metaverse ultimately look like and who is building the ubiquitous access it implies?

Frank Wilder, a 3D digital artist and co-founder of Wilder World, seeks to answer that question with Wilder World, an immersive 5D experience built on Ethereum, Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5, and ZERO. Having been called “the sculptor of the future” and “Banksy of Blockchain”, Wilder is well-positioned to have a clear vision. 

Source: Wilder World Twitter account

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“The way we're thinking about it is there are really centralized and decentralized metaverses and LoFi vs. HiFi metaverses. So we've positioned Wilder World in the quadrant of being the decentralized photorealistic, high-fidelity metaverse,” Wilder said.

When looking for cultural reference points for his venture in the Metaverse, Wilder points to pop culture. 

“When people think of the metaverse they think of Ready Player One, and they imagine this high-def virtual world… That idea was deep in the consciousness of people, but no one was really building it. It just felt like that is the place where people will want to be when these ideas become more readily accessible for people in the day-to-day world. So, we're still early on this whole game, as you can see with a lot of the acquisitions lately, Blizzard Activision to Microsoft, and then, of course, Meta (Facebook) with the brand change. I feel the stage is still being set,” Wilder said. 

Wilder World raised over $3 million in its initial private sale and is launching its closed Alpha test in Q1 2022. 

But what about the twin scions of blockchain, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss? After launching and running Gemini exchange independently, they raised $400 million in investment for a metaverse project in Q4 of 2021. But not many specifics have been discussed regarding the project plans for Gemini Space Station, LLC, now valued at $7.1 billion. Beyond speculation that the Gemini metaverse project will somehow stand in competition with the Facebook Meta project, not much has been said about how this capital will be used and what the Gemini contribution to the metaverse will actually be.

To tease out some insights, we spoke with Griffin Cock Foster, Co-Founder of Nifty Gateway, a leading NFT exchange acquired by Gemini in 2018. 

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Griffin Cock Foster

What is the working relationship like between Gemini and Nifty Gateway?

“Nifty Gateway is a part of Gemini. It's fully owned by Gemini. We work on a lot of stuff very closely. A lot of exciting projects. For the launch of the Gemini credit card, we partnered up with a Gemini team to help them sell NFTs that were purchasable via QR code from the ads, which I thought was a super-cool initiative. And we have a lot of other exciting cross-functional initiatives launching that aren't public yet. We did Awkward Astronauts, a 10,000 PFP project that was done as a giveaway to Gemini and Nifty Gateway customers,” Foster said.

Screengrab from the Official Gemini & Nifty Gateway Metaverse HQ Party

How long has Metaverse been on your radar? Did Gemini come to Nifty with the idea or the other way around?

“Gemini has been thinking about NFTs long before any other crypto exchange. Okay. Nifty Gateway was bought in 2019 when NFTs were very much under the radar… NFTs probably had a few 1000 collectors. And the metaverse has been in our plans since day one. 

We always thought about building this decentralized digital item infrastructure, which I think is what a lot of what people are talking about when they talk about the metaverse. I mean, the metaverse encompasses a lot of different terms. But one of the key foundations of the metaverse is a digital item you can truly own that you knew from the digital world,” Foster said.

We always saw NFTs as the building block for that,” Foster said.

Where is the metaverse vision coming from in Gemini/Nifty Gateway?

“Well, we all work collaboratively on the metaverse agenda. The Winklevosses work really closely on a lot of this, as well as the Nifty Gateway executive team, as well as a lot of the other executives at Gemini who were just fantastic. It's something we all think about a lot. Maybe Nifty Gateway’s role is as an access point.

Our mission is to onboard 1 billion people into the metaverse. We've always had that as our mission. 

Our mission since we started (had been) to get 1 billion people collecting NFTs – we've done that by being the easiest way to get started collecting NFTs… Which we see as a foundational part of the metaverse,” Foster said.

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What makes this the right time for Metaverse projects? How have things changed?

“Like a lot of technologies, NFTs seem like they just came out of nowhere for people who are watching from a distance. But if you look at the reality on the ground, they're the result of tinkering by engineers, by hackers, by enthusiasts for decades. The same was true of the personal computer. It was true of the internet. It was true of blockchain when it was first invented. And it’s true of NFTs. They tie in a lot of things that people have been thinking about for a very long time. And they just made this technological breakthrough a reality. 

I would say, the key is property rights. And NFTs provide digital property rights, which wasn't really possible before. You could have sort of good property rights, there were a lot of digital items that are sold on centralized servers, and people pay a lot of money for them, but they don't fundamentally own them, and then make the difference in the world. I think much of the development of the economy in the western world over the last 200 years comes from enforcing property rights. It's very important to an investor or if you're willing to spend a lot of money on something that you have the right to own. NFTs providing those digital property rights in the virtual world ushered in a breakthrough,” Foster said.

What is the opportunity in the Metaverse –  to extend that idea of ownership, or is it just a matter of selling and interacting differently?

“Well, I think infrastructure takes decades to really get built and we're still in the early stages of the metaverse. I think the fact that NFTs give you true property rights means they will be the foundational layer for how the metaverse ultimately gets built. Consumers will use digital worlds where they can take their transferable digital items and things they have rights over. So I do think it will end up being the most important factor, I just think it will take decades to truly develop. I mean, it took the internet decades to get to where it's at. 

Most of the growth of the user base of the internet in terms of raw numbers has come in the last 10 years because it's steadily compounded for 30 years now. So if you're growing 20% Every year, in years four and five, that's really not very many people. But if you're going 20% A year from a base of a billion people, then the numbers start to get really, really enormous. 

NFTs are providing the foundation of digital property rights, which, in my opinion, is the most important breakthrough for building a Metaverse. Over the next few decades, we'll see true digital worlds get established. On top of that, true digital property rights,” Foster said.

What is the actual Gemini/Nifty Gateway Metaverse project that is being worked on? 

“We are working on a number of things around this. We recently opened a gallery in Decentraland. And a Gemini HQ, which was a lot of fun. I'd say it's still early days in terms of transferring these digital property rights to new worlds. And our focus at Nifty is all about building the marketplace. layer, the access layer, the infrastructure layer, that lets people access things that give them true digital property rights, which we see is super important. And there are a lot of other things in the works. For example, we have a really exciting partnership coming up with Samsung that I can't talk too much about. But there's a lot of stuff that we're laying the groundwork for.

“I think we're still finding out exactly what the biggest game-changer will be for the metaverse. I think as we start to inhabit digital worlds more and more. We'll figure out what makes the biggest difference,” Foster said.

What is the real opportunity for NFTs in the Metaverse?

“The opportunity for the Internet was connecting people asynchronously all over the world. And it took decades for a lot of the most important use cases of that to pan out. I mean, Twitter wasn't founded until 2006. The Internet became commercially legal in 1990. It took 16 years for something like Twitter to originate. It took 18 years for something like AirBnB to originate. Ah, I think, you know, these new technologies take time to reach maturity. And digital property rights via NFT ownership are in the very early stages…,” Foster said.

So, having done significant fundraising, what is the actual metaverse project Gemini/Nifty Gateway is working toward?

“Yeah, we haven't really talked about it yet. I would stay posted,” Foster said.

When pressed, Foster added:

“We're focused on building the infrastructure. That's what matters to us.”

What else should we look forward to from Nifty Gateway this year? 

“Nifty Gateway has our curated drop section, which is very important to us and will always be a big part of Nifty but we are expanding into other verticals, other products, other features. The one I'm most excited about is our launch of wallet-to-wallet, buying and selling, where you'll be able to buy and sell NFTs in Ethereum from your wallet, but it will be 70% lower gas fees than exist on any other platform.
So, right now to buy and sell an NFT on one of the major marketplaces, depending on the price of gas, but it probably costs you around 150 to $200. Right, which is just insane. I mean, if you're buying an NFT that costs $400, then you're paying more than 50% of gas fees. So we predict that this new, much lower gas fee feature will be a revolution for a lot of lower-priced projects, especially, and our secondary marketplaces becoming a home for every NFT. On the Ethereum blockchain, we are aggressively listing new projects and rolling out new infrastructure that will list every single NFT in the world, onto our marketplace, our marketplace is becoming much more of a generalized secondary marketplace… listing every NFT on Ethereum onto our marketplace…,” Foster said.

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Summary

If we were looking for a clear description of a single metaverse project Gemini raised all that money for, we have yet to hear it. But perhaps that’s a lesson in itself – the Winklevosses and now the Griffins have been effective futurist investors and have hit crypto and NFT exchanges with easy UXs at just the right time in the technology cycle. 

Perhaps the $400 million fundraise is just a heavy bet on the future of digital ownership in a virtual world. Hopefully, in 2022, we will have a chance to take a peek at more of what that will look like coming from Gemini. Regardless, making Nifty Gateway a part of their operation continues to bring results for Gemini and may turn out to be an even more significant move in the metaverse.